u/JohnNDenver

Looking ahead, the president confirmed that Kyiv intends to expand these operations. “We will scale up the direction of our long-range systems,” Zelenskyy said, noting that specific decisions to facilitate this expansion are currently being prepared.

Zelenskyy’s remarks align with a recent report confirming that Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil infrastructure reached a four-month peak in April. At least 21 attacks targeted Russian refineries, export terminals, and deep-inland pipeline networks, pushing processing volumes to a multi-year low. It was estimated that these operations reduced Russia’s average refinery output to 4.69 million barrels per day—the lowest production level recorded since December 2009.

Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), Russia's largest steelmaker and one of the top 20 globally, аnnounced a significant loss for the first quarter of 2026.

The facility reported a net deficit of 5.9 billion rubles ($64.1M), nearly five times higher than the 1.23 billion rubles recorded during the same period last year, according to The Moscow Times on April 30.
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Industry experts from Russian Alfa Bank noted that market conditions for metal producers are continuing to decline. Other major producers also reported sharp declines.

Severstal lost nearly all of its profit in the first quarter, while Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) saw its steel production hit a 10-year low and reported a net loss of 14.9 billion rubles ($161.9M) for the previous year.

Crumbling economy continues to crumble.